I'm not arguing that it should have whatever “special protection” you have in mind. This is why I mentioned the concept of intent: just as having lock picks or a gun isn't automatically a crime, I think having an exploit for Cellebrite would depend on why you were developing and installing it.

If you were, say, helping dissidents in another country I would expect a judge to be far more supportive of that than if it came up in the context of a criminal investigation with a lawful search warrant. In the latter case, you are aware of but refusing to comply with the legal system and, irregardless of how any of us personally feel about it, that's just not going to end well in most cases.